The Giver of Stars, by Jojo Moyes (2019)
Between 1935 and 1943 the Pack Horse Library Project was a program administered through the WPA. The WPA hired women in Appalachia to ride horses and mules through the rural countryside delivering books to families living in remote areas. This novel is based on that Project.
This novel was based on this Project and focuses on several women who were part of the Horseback Librarians of Baileyville, Kentucky. Alice Wright, a young British woman, married the handsome Bennett Van Cleve, a wealthy American. She dreamed of escaping her sheltered life in England and envisioned an exciting life in the United States. Instead, she found herself in rural Kentucky, living with her husband and his father. The Van Cleve family made their money running a coal mine. Life in Kentucky was far from what Alice thought life in America would be like, nor was her marriage.
When a traveling library was formed in Baileyville, Alice eagerly volunteered. Margery O’Hare was instrumental in coordinating the traveling librarians and taught Alice to ride a horse through the rural back trails of Kentucky and to shoot a gun. Margery, however, was a bit of an outcast and from a “bad” family. Alice and Margery were soon joined by Beth, a renegade; Izzy, a young woman affected with polio; and Sophie, the Black librarian. The library provided Alice with a sanctuary from her loveless marriage and her cruel father-in-law. She formed bonds with the other women delivering books to the greater community.
After it became known that the women of Baileyville were requesting a factual book on sexual satisfaction, the future of the library became threatened. The library was further threatened when tragedy befell one of the librarians.
I enjoyed this book, however, it only briefly touched upon the treatment of workers in the coal mines. I thought this would also be a thread of the novel.
Read: Sept. 30, 2020
3.5 Stars
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